When the two of them returned to Jinling City, the disaster had already been brought under preliminary control, and the rain was gradually stopping.
The sun was sinking in the west. Gaps had appeared in the clouds at the edge of the sky, and golden rays of sunset streamed through them, illuminating the surface of the river until it glittered.
The two of them hurried all the way to the government office.
Unexpectedly, Magistrate Shen was already waiting outside.
When Jun Huailang got out of the carriage, he saw Magistrate Shen standing before Xue Yan, who had already gotten out first, a troubled expression on his face.
“Your Highness, it is not that this subordinate wishes to interfere with what you are doing… It is just that most of the officials in the government office have been dispatched to provide disaster relief. If you imprison so many people at once, there simply aren’t enough people to look after them.”
Xue Yan said indifferently, “I don’t need your men. I have my own people.”
The troubled expression on Magistrate Shen’s face deepened.
“But these people… We don’t yet know whether they are refugees or bandits. Imprisoning them all without distinction will surely invite criticism!”
Without waiting for Xue Yan to speak, he hurriedly continued, “The city has suddenly suffered such a disaster. There are so many refugees, all displaced and hiding wherever they can. Now the whole city is saying… that you have detained innocent refugees for no reason and branded them as bandits. Everyone in the city is terrified!”
Jun Huailang understood.
It was Xue Yan’s decision today that had given rise to the rumors.
The city had already suffered a disaster, and the thing most to be avoided now was a loss of public confidence. He did not know whether someone had deliberately spread the rumors, or whether the large number of people arrested today had simply attracted too much attention.
Or perhaps…
Perhaps ordinary civilians really had been mixed among those people?
In the midst of such a great disaster, it would be easy to incite the surrounding civilians and persuade them to join their ranks. If ordinary civilians were mixed among their people, then imprisoning all of them under the name of bandits would inevitably cause unrest.
Jun Huailang realized that the person behind all this must have prepared everything long ago, calculating every step in advance.
When Xue Yan heard this, however, he only frowned and did not care in the slightest.
“As long as they don’t cause trouble, what difference does it make?”
He had heard misunderstandings from others too many times and had long since become accustomed to them. He was therefore also accustomed to acting arbitrarily and wielding power alone, never taking other people’s words to heart.
He could not even be bothered to explain himself to Magistrate Shen.
Magistrate Shen stammered, unable to say anything, yet he still stood in their way and refused to move aside.
Jun Huailang hurried forward.
“Magistrate,” he said. “The reason His Highness refuses to release these people is that there truly was a plot at the academy.”
Magistrate Shen hurriedly asked, “How does the Heir Apparent know this?”
Jun Huailang handed the drawings in his hand to Magistrate Shen.
“Please look, Magistrate. This is the condition of the embankment after it collapsed today. The collapsed section was clearly not eroded by the river. Someone deliberately dug into it from within the city and damaged the embankment.”
Magistrate Shen was startled.
“How could this be?”
Jun Huailang continued, “The damaged section of the embankment is precisely where the official road was being repaired some time ago. And that day, when I returned to the residence from the academy, I happened to encounter a group of road workers. One of the foremen was the very man who led today’s disturbance at the academy.”
Magistrate Shen stood frozen in place.
Jun Huailang continued, “Magistrate, none of this can possibly be a coincidence. Someone destroyed the embankment and then went to the academy to try to harm the students. And such a person was actually working for the government… Magistrate, you should understand now why His Highness detained them all, shouldn’t you?”
Magistrate Shen stammered, “You mean… someone within the government…?”
Jun Huailang nodded.
“This matter can only be handled by His Highness,” he said. “Otherwise, it will inevitably alert the others.”
After a moment, Magistrate Shen nodded.
Put this way, Xue Yan’s infamous reputation had instead become a protective shield.
Because Xue Yan was known for his brutality, suddenly arresting everyone without explanation would actually reassure the person behind the scenes, making them believe they had not exposed any flaws.
“Therefore, none of this must be revealed to anyone,” Jun Huailang said. “I would also ask Magistrate to spread word that these people harmed the students at the academy, and that the situation was extremely horrific. His Highness happened to encounter them and therefore arrested them all at once, simply to avenge the students.”
Magistrate Shen pondered.
“So rather than clearing His Highness’s bad reputation, we deliberately exaggerate the crimes of these bandits. That will both reassure the people and serve as a deterrent, while at the same time allowing the Empress Dowager’s people to lower their guard?”
Jun Huailang nodded.
After a moment, Magistrate Shen sighed.
“Duke Yongning truly taught you well.”
Jun Huailang knew that this meant Magistrate Shen had agreed to his proposal.
He continued, “Then I also ask Magistrate to promise me that you absolutely cannot tell anyone… not even my father.”
Because he knew that the person obstructing them was very likely someone under his father’s command.
Magistrate Shen nodded in agreement, then said after a moment, “If there truly is someone like this within the government… then the disaster that has befallen Jinling is entirely due to this subordinate’s failure to recognize the right people. It is my fault.”
Jun Huailang shook his head.
“You have done nothing wrong, Magistrate,” he said. “The one at fault is the person who planned all of this behind the scenes.”
Magistrate Shen acknowledged this.
Just then, an official came over to ask Magistrate Shen about arrangements for the refugees.
Magistrate Shen could not stay any longer and took his leave.
Jun Huailang saw him off.
When he turned around and was about to speak to Xue Yan, he realized that Xue Yan was staring down at him.
He did not know how long he had been watching.
His gaze was heated, carrying a lazy smile that made Jun Huailang’s heart tighten.
“…What are you looking at?” His voice involuntarily dropped lower.
Xue Yan gave a faint laugh.
Then he raised his hand and lightly brushed his knuckles against Jun Huailang’s cheek.
“Never noticed before,” he said. “You’ve got quite a lot of tricks up your sleeve.”
——
It was not until Jun Huailang sat down in the prison cell that the heat finally faded from his face.
The Brocade-clad Guards had brought him a Grand Preceptor’s chair with a thick cushion.
Jun Huailang sat down, and hot tea was immediately brought to his hand.
He raised his head.
The foreman was bound in front of him.
Because of Jun Huailang’s earlier orders, the foreman had not suffered much torture. At present, he was tied to a rack, with only the injuries inflicted by Xue Yan on his body.
There were no obvious injuries elsewhere, but his nose was swollen and bruised red.
“I don’t like torture,” Jun Huailang said after taking a sip of tea. “But at present, I have all the information related to you in my hands.”
The foreman slowly raised his head.
Jun Huailang continued, “You supervised the road construction project, and all those workers obeyed your orders. No one except the officials was allowed to enter or leave the worksite. And there are traces of excavation on the embankment. Now that the city has suffered such a great disaster and so many people have died, even if you say nothing, we can execute every road worker involved, along with their entire families.”
The foreman stared steadily at him.
Jun Huailang met his gaze.
“So today, I’m giving you a chance,” he said. “Not a chance for you and your men to live, but a chance for you to protect the other members of your families.”
As he spoke, he slowly set down his teacup.
“Execution of the entire family… I don’t particularly like that either.”
“I have a wife and children. You know that too?” the foreman asked with a hoarse laugh.
Jun Huailang silently looked at him.
The man remained silent for a long time.
“But I can’t save them either,” he said. “I know what you want to ask. Who ordered me around, what orders they gave me, how many people conspired with me, right?”
Jun Huailang said nothing, which amounted to tacit agreement.
The man gave a self-deprecating laugh.
“Even if you ask me, I don’t know any of it.”
Jun Huailang frowned.
The man continued.
“I’m a native of Jinling. I don’t even know who gave me the orders. I only know that if I refused to work for them, my wife and children would suffer. But if I did what they asked, large sums of silver would be delivered into my hands.
“What they wanted me to do is exactly what you see now. Destroy the embankment, let Jinling suffer a disaster, then rush into the academy and kill or injure as many scholars as possible. As for the men under me… I can only command them while we’re carrying out the work. But they and I don’t know each other’s backgrounds. Someone is watching us, and we absolutely cannot reveal anything to one another.”
Jun Huailang’s gaze darkened.
Although what this man had said contained no useful information at all, it matched the information Jun Huailang had uncovered earlier.
He did not seem to be lying.
But… how could anyone have made such elaborate arrangements in the orderly city of Jinling, right under Xue Yan’s eyes?
“…When did those people recruit you?” Jun Huailang asked after a moment of silence.
“Three years ago,” the man said.
Jun Huailang was startled.
“Three years ago?”
“Yes,” he said. “But at the time, they didn’t tell me what they wanted me to do. I was originally a man of the martial world. After getting married, I settled down in Jinling. Back then, I got into a fight with someone and seriously injured him, leaving my family buried under a mountain of debt and with nowhere to turn. They paid money to resolve the crisis for my family. After that, they had me obey them.”
Only then did Jun Huailang suddenly understand why the tragedy that had befallen Jinling City and the Jun family in his previous life, the dangers that seemed impossible to guard against in this life, and the hidden agents within the ranks of the officials who were so difficult to uncover had all come about.
It was because the people behind it had prepared everything long ago.
Before they even arrived, they had already woven an extremely tight web.
Whoever stepped into it would have nowhere to bury their corpse.
Jiangnan was already a region rich in rainfall. Changes in river courses and breaches in embankments were not unusual.
And the people behind the scenes had prepared long ago.
They had planted their own people throughout Jinling City. Normally, they left no traces, but whenever officials dispatched from the capital arrived, they could use the arrangements they had already made to drag those officials into the mire.
First came a sudden disaster.
Then the refugees would erupt into violence, causing large numbers of Jiangnan scholars gathered in Jinling to prepare for the examinations to be killed or injured.
Afterward, they could take advantage of the chaos to embezzle money and silver, then frame the officials who had come from elsewhere.
In this way, they could achieve their goal of harming others while also making a huge profit.
Perhaps they would then step forward at that moment and seize the opportunity to claim credit.
It could truly be called killing two birds with one stone.
Even if the people who came were not the ones they wanted to harm but their own subordinates, the arrangement would not be wasted.
They only needed the people they had planted to create some disturbance, then they could resolve it themselves, putting on an entire performance from beginning to end.
The political achievements would naturally fall into their hands.
Jun Huailang’s back turned cold.
Those people had treated all the other officials and the people of Dayong as nothing more than pawns for obtaining profit.
Their crimes were worthy of death.
He slowly rose from the chair and waved his hand, signaling the Brocade-clad Guards around him not to follow.
Then he walked out of the prison cell alone.
Ironically, he could now see through every move the other side had made.
Yet because they had acted too early and hidden themselves too deeply, even though he had some understanding of the political situation from his previous life and had a general direction in mind, he still could not determine who was behind all this.
Besides… even if he knew, that person could use the strength of others against them, while being ten thousand li away from Jiangnan.
How could someone like him, a commoner without any official position, possibly contend with them?
He slowly walked out of the prison, immersed in his thoughts.
Just then, he suddenly walked straight into a chest.
It was hard and solid, carrying a deep, lingering fragrance of sandalwood.
“What happened?” Xue Yan asked, lowering his head.
Jun Huailang did not know that when he raised his head, his eyes were already bloodshot.
There was a glimmer of moisture in them, making him look especially pitiful.
Xue Yan wrapped one arm around him and pulled him into his embrace.
“All right. It’s fine.”
He raised his other hand and pressed it against the back of Jun Huailang’s head, forcibly pressing his face into the crook of his neck.
“You didn’t get anything out of him, did you? It’s fine. You have me.”